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kukyfrope writes "Now that Sony has killed off Hong Kong retailer and Internet-import capital Lik-Sang, gamers must now find alternative outlets to import games and other goodies from Japan. Modojo has put up a nicely detailed list of some other online vendors that offer the sale of retail Japanese games to other international customers, featuring a few stores that can surely satisfy your import craving. 'The (now two) main Far East based export companies are Play-Asia and YesAsia. Both offer similar services (with the exception of Play-Asia's lack of European shipping for Sony products). So why would you prefer one over the other?'"

I've purchased some asian pop DVDs from YesAsia and they're pretty good, especially if you can snag one of their free shipping deals. They're kind of a one stop shopping place for Japanese, Chinese and Korean CDs, DVDs and games.

I second that. YesAsia is pretty good. But they don't carry all of the niche/techie sort of toys that Lik-Sang did like coder cables and some truly exotic console mods. I only wish I'd imported some of that stuff before they closed.

Even though this sites might offer imports the part I enjoyed most about Lik-Sang was all of the controller adapters, cable extenders, etc that they offered. Lik-Sang actually produced most of these products themselves, so something tells me it will take a while before another company really fully fills their shoes.

Where else am I going to buy a SmartJoy Frag, or a PS2 to Xbox controller adapter, or a Sega Saturn controller extender, etc. (my actual last 3 purchases from Lik-Sang) without having to battl

Sony sued Lik-Sang in multiple European countries. Lik-sang claimed they could not afford the cost of attending court for each of these cases, so they decided to shut their doors. Wikipedia and Google may be more helpful.

I think this is about how it went down (keep in mind I'm simplifying it) let's say that the overall legal fees would amount to one million dollars. Now let's say the maximum amount that Lik-Sang could have possibly spent on the legal fees is one hundred thousand dollars. There'd be no possible way to cover the other 900 thousand right? Now as a CEO would you rather piss the money away knowing you're going to lose because you can't afford to win, or would you split the money up and dissolve the company?

I read the previous story and I know that Lik Sang BLAMES sony for putting them out of business. But reselling sony equipment is only a part of the mix of the products that they sold, and they've been stopped from selling products by other manufacturers as well.

Couldn't it be possible that Lik Sang is just taking advantage of negative Sony feedback over the past year to send another f-u to Sony? I find it hard to believe they'd be put out of business over this single issue, and the whole time not point

Couldn't it be possible that Lik Sang is just taking advantage of negative Sony feedback over the past year to send another f-u to Sony? I find it hard to believe they'd be put out of business over this single issue, and the whole time not point any blame at the quasi grey market business that they were operating under.

Obviously, you weren't paying attention. Sony sued Lik-Sang in nearly every european country. Defending against one suit is expensive. Defending against dozens? Far too much for a small compa

Lik Sang does not have any operations in any of those companies. Why did they have to go and defend themselves there? When you file a lawsuit, you have to show the court that it has jurisdiction over the matter.

If Lik-Sang loses a case in a country, it can no longer export merchandise to that country. Instead, shipments can be seized at the border as contraband. So, Lik-Sang could have ignored the suits and stayed in business, but it no longer would have had a market. The EU was its market.

I read the previous story and I know that Lik Sang BLAMES sony for putting them out of business. But reselling sony equipment is only a part of the mix of the products that they sold, and they've been stopped from selling products by other manufacturers as well.Couldn't it be possible that Lik Sang is just taking advantage of negative Sony feedback over the past year to send another f-u to Sony? I find it hard to believe they'd be put out of business over this single issue, and the whole time not point any

Is this intended to be "Who will replace Lik-Sang?" or is it more like one of those Final Destination movies, "Who will Sony destroy next?"

For import gaming I always used National Console Support [ncsx.com], I mainly used Lik-Sang for wierd stuff. So what I'm looking for is not a replacement import gaming place, but a replacement wierd stuff place. I suppose The Goat Store [goatstore.com] could help me replace some of this. (Note: An acronym for Games of all Types, some./'s probably have an unreasonable fear of goats at this p

I've bought some games from J-List but I only play them for the articles....

Actually, I was thinking of buying a Domo-kun from them (see URL link [biboz.net]). But now we are outside the realm of games unless you mean PC games. In which case we may as well mention X-Arcade [x-arcade.com].

This is all academic anyway, as I'm in debt up to my eyeballs for the next 5 years at least....

The sites mentioned are severely lacking in doujin/Japanese PC games like the Touhou series and a lot of the Higurashi stuff (the original PC version only costs about $20 instead of $60-100 for the PS2 version). Similar situation with Fate/Stay Night.
http://www.himeyashop.com/ [himeyashop.com] and http://www.paletweb.com/ [paletweb.com] fill that void quite well, especially for non-console gamers like me.

None of the larger import stores sell PC games, at least not the indie variety. Perhaps they're worried because like 80% of these games use characters they have no rights to (i.e. shamelessly lifted from some dating sim). Thanks for the link to Palet, though, they seem to have more payment options and cheaper shipping options (Himeya refuses to ship uninsured and with many indie games that means you pay more on shipping than the game itself).

...and I usually buy from Play-Asia. They have great customer service and a great selection.

YesAsia is often a little cheaper, but their selection isn't as good and they are really really terrible about updating their site about stock levels. They're also really bad about doing timely refunds. I've ordered games from them, only to be told a week and a half later that they're out of stock, and then had to wait another week and a half for the refund to be processed. This only applies to somewhat older game